[loxias]

That's a beautiful link, thanks for that.

I'm probably missing something obvious, but could it be done by using a larger number of inexpensive setups?

There's no reason that each camera has to be focused on the same part of the grating, right? 4x cameras, point each at a different region and stitch it in software.

[joshvm]

It's easier to rotate the grating. That's how we did this in labs in undergraduate (we did a session on imaging the sun with a high res spectrometer). Or put it on a stepper or servo motor and sweep it in several positions. We used an SBIG camera and a micrometer-adjustable spectrometer. It seems like SBIG got bought up by the folks that make MaximDL. They used to sell these instruments off the shelf for $$$$.

It's more complicated to use multiple cameras on one grating because you'd need far more light shielding.

[paulkrush]

Yes you can stitch: have 4x cameras, or move the camera and take 16 images, or a single detector are all going to work. My question is what is the lens/optics set up? I think the answer in understanding optics and or know the right terms and or understanding all the different types of spectroscopy. It's a bit to look into. It's seems someone would be publishing DIY things like this already, but I don't know the right terms to search for.